Secretary, Hull
Trades Council DISCIPLINARY notices against four Hull building workers have been withdrawn following a successful unofficial strike.
The city council workers had been summoned to disciplinary hearings under the council's Performance Monitoring Scheme. The senior shop steward Kevin Taylor was amongst those threatened with disciplinary action.
Forty joiners and bricklayers sat in at the Tiverton council depot and refused to work. A mass meeting was held and the attempts made to spread the action.
Management had to back The disciplinary action was lifted. Stewart Emms of UCATT summed up the feeling of all those involved "this was a victory for workers solidarity."
The success follows street lighting workers action against • NAME... Address. Post code..
The two local strikes highlight the need to defend the right to strike and to build effective action in defence of public services. Hull UCATT members are now planning to attend the November 26th conference at Birmingham Union Club. Building workers are also planning for the Hull Trades Council march and rally on October 22th. • A strike of nearly fifty building workers at the 24 ISSUES: BRITAIN £17; rest of the world £22 (surface)
(Air mail rates Australasia, Japan, China £38, rest of the world £30) 12 ISSUES: BRITAIN £9, rest of the world £12 (Air mail rates Australasia etc £20, rest of the world £16)
runnin North Hull Action Trust has led to the reinstatement of a worker sacked for allegedly verbally abusing a member of the public. The strike was held without a ballot and united UCATT members and non-union workers, most of whom are self-employed. This important victory came, according to one local UCATT organiser, because workers were prepared "to use old-fashioned industrial muscle"
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RMT gained members from the dispute, and as Socialist Outlook has previously argued, it is crucial to build workplace organisation to prepare for future conflicts.
The low turnout for the strike ballot and failure of some members to support the strike shows there is a lot of work to be done.
• Militant tube workers leader Bob Crowe has beaten a right winger to take one of the three RMT Assistant General Secretary jobs by a vote of 10,000-5,000. His role in supporting the Railtrack signal workers was decisive. The mood for a fight exists side-by-side with demoralisation.
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